What does “Chat is this real” mean?
It’s a catchphrase that’s similar to “Can you believe this?” The term comes from streamers referencing their live audience—aka, the chat. The term is often used as an expression of disbelief, like “Is this even real life?” (e.g., here, where it’s used as a caption on a post where ChatGPT allegedly turned a cat into Idris Elba). It can also be used to point out something that’s obviously fake, like AI-generated content (e.g., this Reddit post where “Moses” frees the Israelites from the Egyptians). Why is it trending? The phrase caught on—especially with younger Gen Zs and Gen Alphas—and now it’s commonly used in captions, comments sections, and even real-life situations. “Chat am I cooked?” is a similar phrase that means something like, “Am I in trouble?” Some people think the “Chat” in “chat is this real” refers to ChatGPT, but it actually doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Who started saying “Chat is this real”?
The phrase was popularized by streamer iShowSpeed. The streamer, who started on Twitch, said it as a way of interacting with the viewers in his livestream, who could respond to him via chat. He often used the catchphrase as an ironic reaction to AI videos, like this one where an AI-generated image of Elon Musk offers iShowSpeed a Tesla if iShowSpeed reacts to the video. A clip from the above video went viral in March 2023. From there, the phrase spread, quickly becoming popular as a caption for pictures and videos. For instance, “chat is this real” was used as the caption on an X repost of this picture of a sleeping kitten originally captioned “died.” Today, it’s often used as a reference to an imaginary audience—like “Are you seeing this?”
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